Food, beverage companies slash calories in obesity fight

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A voluntary effort by the world's
largest food and beverage companies to remove billions of
calories from the products they sell in the United States to
help combat the nation's obesity epidemic has far exceeded its
five-year goal, according to an independent evaluation released
on Thursday.

In May 2010, 16 of the nation's biggest food and beverage
companies, from Coca-Cola Co to Kraft Foods Group, pledged to
remove 1 trillion calories from the U.S. marketplace by 2012 and
1.5 trillion by 2015, compared with a 2007 baseline. In fact, as
of 2012 they sold 6.4 trillion fewer calories, an analysis by
researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
(UNC) found.

"Reports like this, and the fact that they exceeded their
commitment by four-fold, really shows that you can make progress
in giving American families more healthy options," said Larry
Soler, president of the Partnership for a Healthier America, a
non-profit chaired by first lady Michelle Obama. The group was
formed in 2010 to work with the private sector on anti-obesity
strategies.

At the time, critics said the Partnership relied too heavily
on the good will of the industry and could not replace the role
of tighter regulation on how food is manufactured and marketed.

Such voluntary efforts by industry "are not a magic bullet,"
said Jeff Levi, executive director of Trust for America's
Health, a non-profit policy group. "Particularly with kids,
there is a role for regulation" in reducing demand for
unhealthy, high-calorie fare.

It is not clear yet how the companies accomplished the
dramatic calorie reduction, said UNC public health researcher
Barry Popkin, who led the analysis funded by the Robert Wood
Johnson Foundation, the nation's largest public health
philanthropy. Some of the decline may have come from the
recession, as financially-strapped families cut back on junk
food.

When the pledge was announced, companies said they would
substitute lower-calorie products, re-engineer existing products
to cut their calories, and reduce portion size, such as with the
popular 100-calorie packs of cookies and other snacks.

Popkin and his team have found that beverage companies are
producing more drinks that have both sugar and artificial
sweeteners and, therefore, fewer calories than sugar-only
drinks. They are also "shifting advertising to lower-calorie
beverages," he said, as Coca-Cola and PepsiCo both did.

The biggest reduction in calories sold was to households
with young children. "It seems to be parents who are driving the
calorie reductions," Popkin said.

It is also not clear whether the reduction can move the
needle for more than two-thirds of Americans who are overweight
or obese. The 6.4 trillion fewer calories works out to 78 fewer
calories per person per day, if spread equally across the 2012
U.S. population. By comparison, Americans consume an average of
300 more calories a day now than in 1985 and 600 more than in
1970, according to a 2012 report by Trust for America's Health.

They are part of the Healthy Weight Commitment Foundation, a
chief-executive-led organization formed in 2009 that aims to
reduce obesity. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention, 35.7 percent of U.S. adults are obese
(having a body mass index above 30, such as 175 pounds on a 5
foot, 4 inch frame). So are 14.9 percent of children, which is
down from 15.2 percent in 2003.

The 16 companies sold 60.4 trillion calories in 2007, which
was 36 percent of total calories in packaged foods and beverages
- cereals, chips, canned soup, juices, sodas, candy and more -
sold that year. In 2012 they sold 54 trillion calories.

To calculate the calories sold, the UNC researchers combined
data on foods and beverages sold (from grocery-store scanners
and other sources) with nutritional information for the
products.